And so the question becomes, what you do in the meantime? And you go - if you're forever on the move, especially in the life of the mind; forever reading veraciously, writing, speaking, lecturing, trying to unsettle minds, trying to touch souls, trying to encourage and inspire, on the one hand, but also trying to unhouse and unnerve people, so that they have to reexamine themselves, society and the world on the others. There's tremendous joy in it.

The wonderful thing about the black church for me is that it forces you to come to terms with the centrality of love in the world.

I've been blessed, I think, to have tremendous joy in my life in pursuing my vocation, my calling.

If you view life as a gold rush, you're going to end up worshiping a golden calf.

Faith is stepping out on nothing and landing on something.

Optimism is evidence-based.

Greatness is telling the truth & being courageous in pursuit of justice. The worst thing you could tell young people is to be successful but become well-adjusted to an unjust status quo as opposed to being great & being maladjusted to an unjust status quo.